Wm. Hovey Smith 
Father of the Grooms 
Murder, Marriage, and Mafia: An American Family Meets Their Sicilian Cousins

The long and complex history of Sicily from before the time of the Greeks to today is explored in the form of a novel written by Wm. Hovey Smith. The action involves a Sicilian family who lives in Louisiana taking a unique opportunity to return to Sicily for the first time in three generations. The family is briefly together again. One son, a Marine Officer has just returned from Iraq, His brother, an unsuccessful portrait painter, has been thrown out by his girlfriend and drives back from San Francisco. Their sister works with his gay brother in his hair saloon, and Dad and Mom have retired. During all of the time that the family has been in America there has been correspondence between them and their Sicilian relatives. In catching everyone up on family matters, the father mentions jokingly that maybe his sons would have better luck "the old fashioned way, " that is with an arranged marriages. To escape a continuous cycle of bloodshed and murder, a daughter and niece of the Enforcer for the Mafia, Luigi, The Claw, are ready to leave the island at any costs – including marrying two American guys that they have never met. Further complications are that the head of the Mafia family and his Segundo have been arrested and another family is attempting to move into their territory. When the Americans arrive on Monday they are informed that the weddings will be on Friday, or the entire family may meet with an unfortunate accident while on their Sicilian vacation. Tensions and dangers rise as the family tours the island’s famous sights and ruins as the climatic day approaches that they will become united in a perhaps not quite holy matrimony. In an attempt to get the gals to call off the wedding their gay uncle and an Irish Priest hatch a plot with a pair of gay strippers to have the grooms observed by their brides in a compromising situation. "No difference, " Luigi says. "The wedding is on Friday!"